Light Howitzer against Greyhound

[Steiner]

Dear Comrades,

Today I wanted to fire my German light howitzer against an American scouting vehicle Greyhound.

But, I got lost within the rules.

The light howitzer chose to fire directly. Because in direct fire I just needed a +3 (no mod applied) to hit whereas in indirect I needed a 6.

It has a HE 2”.

How do I proceed? Can you give me an example of this engagement, please? Imagine I hit, then what do I do to see the damage cause? The target is armor 7 and open-topped.

• This topic was modified 3 years ago by Steiner.

[Stuart Harrison]

Your next step is rolling ‘to damage’ with the HE pen +2 added to your D6.  If your shot is against side or rear, you will also add that modifier (+1 or +2 respectively, you are unlikely to get ‘top’ with direct fire).  There are no specific ‘to damage’ modifiers applicable to being open topped vs direct fire.

If your total is 7, you score superficial damage.  If your total is 8 or 9, you score full/normal damage.  If your total is 10 (rolled a 6 to damage and it was a rear hit) you score massive damage.  A total of 6 or under is no damage, just apply pin/s and that’s it.

If you scored damage on the roll ‘to damage’, move on to the damage results table, p108.  Superficial damage is at a -3, massive damage you roll twice and apply both results.  Again, as it’s unlikely to be a top hit, there are no specific modifiers due to being ‘open topped’.

Anything still unclear?  Anything others can spot that I’ve missed?

[Nigel Heather]

I don’t know the rules that well but interested to know whether the Greyhound is moving.  I’m thinking of the reality (not the game) that it would be difficult hitting a moving vehicle (especially something as nimble as a Greyhound) with a howitzer particularly if the movement is perpendicular to the gun.  I wonder whether that is modelled at all in the rules.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Nat]

@Nigel – the greyhound has the ability to rece away if it hasnt already activated… speed a unit is moving at is considered in the base to hit (ie not an extra modifier) for shooting – it’s speed does alter the to hit needed in assault.

@Stuart – indirect fire (the only way to hit top armour) has a +1 on the damage table as well…. but I cant think of anything you’ve not covered.

@Stiener – Stuart has the most of it down.  Just if a rece vehicle (most Armoured Cars are) hasnt activated then it can make a rece move after you’v decleared it a target.  The rece move must be away from you and try and get out of sight /make the shot harder. (it then goes ‘down’ to show its moved).

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Nat.

[Steiner]

Thanks to both.

Nigel, the Greyhound had moved before so it could not have the recce reaction now, I guess, right?

[Nat]

@Steiner, – yep, rece is only for unactivated units

[Nigel Heather]

Thanks for the confirmation.  Just to be clear I was just referring to reality and wondering whether the rules addressed that.

In reality it would be extremely difficult to hit a moving armoured car with a howitzer even in direct fire, especially where the movement is at an angle to the gun.  The low velocity of the shell, the slow traverse and type of gun sights typical of a howitzer make it a very unsuitable weapon to engage a fast moving target.

There is certainly examples where field artillery have been used to engage AFVs, the 25 pounders in the western desert recorded some success, but generally such examples were rare.

Engaging a stationary AFV, absolutely, but to hit one that’s moving would need blind luck.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Stuart Harrison]

@Nat

“@Stuart – indirect fire (the only way to hit top armour) has a +1 on the damage table as well…. but I cant think of anything you’ve not covered.”

It is also possible to get top armour hits from plunging fire (p123) – this would require being set up in an upper storey of a building and having the target vehicle within 12″ – that’s why I mentioned it but dismissed it as unlikely when the question was specifically about a direct fire shot.  It can be a fine line between a comprehensive answer and ‘TL:DR’ 😉

[invisible officer]

Well Nigel, reality.    All German guns, even the very big 17cm , got used in direct fire against vehicles.

The muzzle velocity plays no role against ground vehicles, only planes. The Geman 10,5 cm LeFh had one of 470 meter per second on slowest round. 56° angle to each side with fast traverse.   The crew of 10,5 LeFH was also able to raise the holmes for fast traverse. It was trained often.

The Rundblickfernrohr was developed for indirect and direct fire.  Anything under 200 km/h no problen to follow.     Up to  17cm all had Panzergranaten too / AT rounds. Against the armor of a Greyhound even the Sprengranate / HE round was deadly. Speed + weight =   cake box open.

[Darin]

The only step I can think you missed is placing the 2″ template after the hit roll to see if any other units could be hit.

[Stuart Harrison]

@ Darin, a 2″ template isn’t going to hit any other units unless someone forgot the 1″ rule between units 😉 (you’d be lucky to clip anyone with a 3″) – remember with vehicles the template needs to be centred over the target vehicle.

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